Here’s a great game to practice thinking metaphorically – it also works well as a drinking game!

Here’s one of my favourite games to play with writers. I call it the simile wheel of fortune.

It’s really simple. Everyone sits in a circle and one person says a thing that is like another thing. For instance, a slate is like a blackboard. The next person has to think of something a blackboard is like. You can choose whether to compare in the plural or the singular, and the comparison doesn’t have to be good or original: for instance, they might say, “A blackboard is like the night sky.”

And on it goes. The next person might say, “The night sky is like a cloak” (as in the cliché “the world was cloaked in darkness).

A cloak is like a waterfall.

A waterfall is like long hair.

Long hair is like the branches of a willow tree.

The branches of a willow tree are like rain.

Rain is like stair rods.

Stair rods are like baguettes.

Baguettes are like sausages.

It’s getting dangerously phallic here. Let’s take a different direction: A sausage is like a dog. Kind of.

A dog is like a best friend.

A best friend is like a woolly jumper.

A woolly jumper is like a sheep.

A sheep is like a cloud.

A cloud is like candyfloss, etc.

It’s a great way to train your mind to see the connections between things. It also works excellently as a drinking game.